1. Technical Field:
The present invention is directed to an improved data processing system. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for providing web accessibility services.
2. Description of Related Art:
As the ADA becomes widely applied to Internet Web sites and other online properties, accessibility to these Internet Web sites, by persons having a different set of abilities becomes mandated by law. Online service providers and electronic businesses (e-businesses) need help in meeting these requirements and ensuring that they serve all their customers. As Web sites begin to differentiate themselves based on service, online businesses that offer service tailored to the customer's needs are more likely to be favored by customers with disabilities, or customers with a different set of abilities, than those Web sites that do not offer such tailored service. Until now, the industry has focused on designing shrink-wrapped client-side accessibility solutions ranging from screen-readers to self-voicing Web browsers like IBM Home Page Reader™ (HPR). IBM Home Page Reader™ is an IBM product that turns Internet Explorer into a talking browser.
Selling shrink-wrapped solutions like HPR into the support-intensive accessibility market at an affordable price is a difficult proposition. Products like IBM's Via Voice™, which uses speech recognition to type documents, for example, may be very helpful to people that cannot move or are otherwise unable to use a keyboard. Because Via Voice™ is relatively cheap, and the market of persons having special needs is relatively small when compared to the overall market, selling the Via Voice™ application to mobile-impaired users as a client end product is not a profitable venture. For this reason, companies that sell speech recognition products are not given an incentive to market their products to a relatively small market of mobile-impaired users.
Thus, it would be beneficial to have an apparatus and method for providing accessibility products to persons having special needs that is both relatively cheap for the end user as well as profitable for the supplier of the accessibility product.